Pelagia moves closer to all-in-one sludge solution for fish farmers
Fjord Solutions, which makes a system that captures and transports feed waste and sludge from open and semi-closed fish farm pens, has been bought by fish processor and marine ingredients supplier Pelagia as part of its efforts to provide more complete sludge solutions for the aquaculture industry.
Pelagia, which has expertise in logistics and processes, bought sludge dewatering, storage and value creation company Blue Ocean Technology last year, and the acquisition of Fjord Solutions adds further competence in the field.
The purchase means Fjord Solutions’ employees, products and patents will now become an integral part of Pelagia.
A valuable addition
“Fjord Solutions is a valuable addition to our portfolio. It gives us the opportunity to combine sludge collection at sea with dewatering, intermediate storage, and transport. We provide our customers with fewer interfaces, lower operating costs and better resource utilisation,” said Pelagia chief executive Egil Magne Haugstad.
Knut Antonsen, chief operating officer and head of sludge at Pelagia, said: “By gathering our resources and expertise in a single unit, we are accelerating the development of new solutions and streamlining existing offerings.
“Our goal is to expand our market share by covering more links in the value chain, thereby delivering even more comprehensive and competitive solutions to the industry.”
The right choice
Fjord Solutions chief executive Daria Lysova said: “Becoming part of Pelagia is the right choice for us. It gives us the opportunity to further develop our innovative solutions, while strengthening our ability to deliver complete systems to the industry. We look forward to becoming part of the Pelagia team.”
Pelagia already supplies the aquaculture industry both with technical solutions for handling trimmings, fish guts, and dead fish, and with a contingency solution for fish in the sea. It has also established solutions both at sea and on land to handle the logistics associated with these services.
The company operates 28 facilities in Norway, United Kingdom (Grimsby; Aberdeen; Greenock; Bressay, Shetland), Ireland (Killybegs), Denmark and Ukraine. Pelagia is owned 50-50 by Leroy Seafood's majority owner Austevoll Seafood ASA, and Kvefi AS, which is majority owned by Kverva Industries, a holding company for the Witzøe family that controls the world’s second largest salmon farmer, SalMar.
